Spy Suspect Held Coveted Fbi Job, Was Office Joke

October 13, 1985|By Catherine Gewertz, United Press International

LOS ANGELES — By several accounts, Richard W. Miller was a dismal failure as an FBI agent and everyone knew it. The mention of his name prompted jokes and peals of laughter, yet he held one of the FBI`s most coveted jobs.

Miller, a portly, excommunicated Mormon, retained his spot on the Soviet counterintelligence squad despite his numerous professional and moral failings through the good graces of the fellow Mormons who controlled the squad and the Los Angeles FBI, his attorney says.

Those claims, advanced during Miller`s 11-week espionage trial, have placed the FBI under a rare magnifying glass, raising questions about the competency of the massive investigative agency.

When the FBI handcuffed Miller on Oct. 2, 1984, he became the only FBI agent ever charged with espionage. The government claims he gave secret documents to his Soviet lover, Svetlana Ogorodnikova, for a promised $65,000.

He denies the charges, claiming he was trying to appear ``recruitable`` in an attempt to infiltrate the KGB and save his otherwise lackluster FBI career.

The federal court jury was expected to hear closing arguments in the case this week.

An unusual element of Miller`s defense is the contention that his Mormon supervisors coddled him for years because of their shared faith and later singled him out for unusually harsh treatment - including dismissal and prosecution - when his misdeeds multiplied.

They claim Miller, 48, was just the example the Los Angeles FBI needed to quell allegations of Mormon favoritism raised by Bernardo ``Matt`` Perez, an FBI supervisor who claims his Catholicism kept him at arm`s length from a promotion.

Three weeks after Miller`s arrest, FBI Director William Webster said he doubted inept Mormon agents were being protected by a circle of fellow Mormons in the Los Angeles office.

``Every assignment has been based on merit and I have no reason to believe that anybody offered any kind of blanket of protection,`` he said.

But the agency has been silent on the issue since.

``It would be inappropriate for the FBI to respond to that,`` an FBI spokesman said recently in Washington, D.C. ``The courtroom would be the proper forum to litigate that.``

The Mormon Church also has refused to deal publicly with the issue.

Faced in court with allegations of the existence of the so-called ``Mormon Mafia,`` FBI supervisors responded with repeated denials. But several startling disclosures were made, including an admission that Miller`s faith was a factor in winning him the spot on the Soviet counterintelligence squad.

P. Bryce Christensen, a Mormon who headed the squad, said Miller`s bosses at the Riverside field office transferred him onto the prestigious Soviet squad in 1981 because he needed maximum supervision.

``They also indicated they were transferring him to my squad because of our common religious background, thinking I could possibly be a role model,`` said Christensen, who is now an assistant special agent in charge in Los Angeles.

The portrait of Miller that has emerged from detailed testimony about his work history shows an agent whose wide girth got him several censures and suspensions without pay.

One of his supervisors testified he took Miller off sensitive street work in 1982 because an FBI psychiatrist feared a mental breakdown. Miller`s moral character has also been sullied by his own admissions of petty thievery and adultery.

Perez, whose testimony was laced with bitterness about the alleged favoritism, said Miller had no place in the FBI.

``From my personal knowledge, he was a bumbler,`` Perez said. ``He was in all sorts of trouble. He was more than the office joke. He was the FBI joke. There were R.W. Miller jokes all through the office.``

``I wanted to fire Mr. Miller from the FBI but Mr. Bretzing was opposed to it,`` Perez said.

Perez said Bretzing told him to ``let Mr. Christensen handle it.``

``I believe that happened because they are both Mormons,`` Perez said. ``I saw it happen with other Mormons and only Mormons.``

Miller`s attorneys argue that the same religious ties that cushioned him against threatened dismissal for years turned to shackles in Bretzing`s hands.

They say it was Bretzing`s impassioned religious plea to ``repent`` on Sept. 29, 1984 that coaxed repeated false confessions from the distraught, exhausted agent.

After that meeting, a tearful Miller began changing the version of the story he had revealed voluntarily to Christensen two days earlier, finally telling FBI interrogators he had given secret documents to Ogorodnikova.